West Wisconsin Ave. parking lot to be reborn under new effort

The long-dormant Milwaukee parking lot on West Wisconsin Avenue could be redeveloped into a civic space to generate much-needed activity under a plan stakeholders and the creative community expect to complete in June.

It is a change of direction for the site, which was long considered a prime spot for large-scale hotel development. Click here for full coverage of the new effort, and the long history of attempts to build there, in the Jan. 24 weekly edition of The Business Journal.

The 2-acre property at Wisconsin Avenue and North Fourth Street is critical to the future of the area around the Wisconsin Center and Shops of Grand Avenue, said Steve Chernof, attorney with Godfrey & Kahn SC, Milwaukee. Chernof is leading a nonprofit organization attempting to revitalize that neighborhood.

“It seems to us that a key piece is the empty block, and in some respects it is the easiest to tackle because there is one owner, the city,” Chernof said.

The organization may soon commission Creative Alliance Milwaukee to lead an effort linking stakeholders with the creative community to devise new uses for the city-owned parking lot.

The latest initiative, which is coming together this month, is intended to put action behind the idea of using the land as a civic space, potentially with beer gardens, restaurants, a band shell, sculpture garden or other uses.

Milwaukee development commissioner Rocky Marcoux and downtown Ald. Robert Bauman said they support a civic reuse of the space. Marcoux said the discussion is conceptual right now, but “very serious.”

“Right now there’s a lot of brainstorming going on around it,” he said. “You want open, civic space so it is inviting, but part of it you would want covered so it could be used year-round.”

Ben Koller, owner of the former MECCA floor designed by artist Robert Indiana, has presented to Chernof’s group with interest in putting the floor there as a public art installation.

Creative Alliance this week sent a proposal to the West Wisconsin Avenue group to lead creation of a plan to redevelop the property, said Jill Morin, co-chair of Creative Alliance. The group pitched its plan on Jan. 15 to a West Wisconsin Avenue task force led by Wispark LCC president Jerry Franke that is focused on the parking lot site.

“We’re going to bring together stakeholders, people and business owners with a vested interest in the success of Fourth and Wisconsin,” Morin said. “The city will consider public-private partnerships, but at the end of the day they want this to be as accessible as possible to the public.”

Chernof said he has not reviewed Creative Alliance’s proposal, but that it will likely be accepted.

Morin said she plans to hold monthly focus group meetings starting in February to brainstorm about the site, including potential funding sources. Those will be collected into a specific final plan during a day-long meeting in June. In addition to stakeholders, the group will include Milwaukee’s creative community of designers, promoters and media professionals, she said.

“What comes out of it isn’t necessarily a building, but it is a new experience,” Morin said.

Some of the design parameters under Creative Alliance’s proposal are based on those the city used decades ago to set up Summerfest on the lakefront, she said. That includes maximizing public use and access, she said.

“It’s a large site, it’s a prominent site and it’s on the major thoroughfare in downtown Milwaukee,” Morin said. “We’ve got the right players at the right time.”